Windows 7 Upgrade

Hi,
Im planning on upgrading from vista 32-bit to windows 7 64-bit when its released later this month.  But having never installed an operating system before im unsure on some things, and i know that going from 32bit to 64bit complicates things a little.  Just some advice and guidance really :emotion-2:.

Firstly id like to know what happens (upon the clean install; when i believe the installation erases all files etc) to the 10gb 'RECOVERY' partition put in place by dell? Will i have to go into the settings and delete this as a partition during the installation so i dont have a random 10gb partition on my hard drive? Will that be done automatically? Or does the computer need files on there for whatever reason?

Secondly im curious if i need any dell installation discs etc for anything in particular? I would like to assume that once i install the OS all will be fine and everything (well mostly...) will work, but i know thats not allways the case.  I know i need backups of any other programs & files etc that i use, thats not a problem as i have an external hard drive i can use.

(I have a vostro 410 desktop 4gbram, q9400, 500gb, 8800gt.....)

Any other help and advice with this would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!